H10N1 Read online

  He doubled over to get a closer look at the stitches in his shin. They were healing nicely. Stretching back up, he flexed his wrist. The pain was almost gone. A couple more shots from the Doc and he’d be good as new.

  A girl’s voice said, “Who are you?”

  Rick swung around to see a nubile young thing leaning in the doorway. She was wearing a pink tube top, and it was working overtime to support some bodacious knockers. A tattoo of a snake slithered around the belly stud in her navel. The Daisy Dukes she had on barely hit the tops of her thighs, and her long legs went all the way down to bare feet—with polished toenails.

  People were running for their lives, but this chick had taken time to pack polish? Rick felt a distinct rustling in his nether-region when her full mouth parted in a classic fuck-me smile.

  “I’m Rick DeAngelo,” he stammered. “We just came in this morning.”

  “We?”

  “Yeah, there’s four of us.”

  “Wow!” Her whole body wiggled. “Do they all look like you?”

  Mayday! Mayday! Rick coughed to catch his breath. “No, actually two of us, of them, are women. And Devin’s got a better tan.”

  “Ummm.” She swaggered into the dining room and bent way over the table to grab one of the bananas in the center. Holy mother of God, she had another tattoo on her right cheek.

  He gripped the counter for support. “And who are you?”

  She sauntered back to the kitchen, peeling the banana. Then she shoved it way into her mouth, wrapped her lips around the fruit, and slowly pulled it back out. Rick felt his heart seize.

  “I’m Kat. You probably met my mother, Carol? The scrawny bitch with an attitude?”

  All he could do was nod.

  “Looks like it’s pretty hot out there.” She bit the end off the banana.

  “Yeah, well I’m not used to the heat yet.”

  She sauntered over, laid a hand on his chest and dragged her palm down toward his waist.

  “Good morning, Katherine,” an annoyed voice said.

  Rick reeled back. There stood Michael, his arms crossed, his mouth in a tight pinch.

  Kat rolled her eyes, not even bothering to turn around. “Good morning, Michael.” Then she got a wicked smile on her face, and stared right into Rick’s eyes. “I’ve got dibs on this one.”

  “Very funny, Katherine. But I don’t think Doctor Sanchez is interested in sharing.”

  “Doctor Sanchez!” Her eyes drifted down to Rick’s crotch. “You don’t act gay.”

  Michael stepped up behind her. “Doctor Sanchez is a woman. Now why don’t you put some clothes on and go help in the garden.”

  Thank God she finally turned away so Rick could take a breath.

  “I am dressed.” Kat hugged her fingers around her bare hips. “And in case you haven’t noticed, I just did my hair, duh. Why would I go outside and get all sweaty?”

  Time to escape. “Hey, man. I was just cutting off my jeans.” Rick snatched up his shoes. “Judith’s probably wondering what’s taking so long. I better get back.”

  He practically scraped his back along the wall getting as far from that little minx as he could, then he bolted down the hall and back out into the kind of heat he knew how to deal with.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “Good news,” Judith said as she sat down to their meager lunch. “We’re done in the garden for today.” Taeya gave a silent cheer. Working out in that greenhouse was like toiling under a giant magnifying glass.

  Judith made a point of glaring at John Parker, probably wondering the same thing as Taeya: why hadn’t he worked out there? He seemed duly chagrined. Michael wouldn’t meet Judith’s stare. He’d never come back to help with the work either.

  “But we made good headway,” Judith said. “I promise not every day will be this hard.”

  Everyone sighed, even Devin.

  Halfway through the meal, a Lolita in a tube top pranced into the kitchen, picked up a plate and started for the stairs.

  Michael called out to her, “Katherine, why don’t you come in and eat with us? You can meet our new residents.”

  Taeya noted the bleached blond hair that was spiked, the skimpy shorts and the excessive makeup. The girl must have been wearing a dozen earrings, and that was just in her ears. Taeya could only guess what else she had pierced.

  The young girl took an empty seat between John and Devin. John lifted his arm off the table in a subtle move, as though she may be contagious. Taeya wondered if she was.

  “So.” Judith didn’t waste any time. “Do you go by Katherine or Katie?”

  “My friends call me Kat.”

  Michael snickered, and she hissed at him, clawing the air with her polished nails.

  “Well, you missed the introductions this morning, Kitten. I’m Judith. The gentleman next to you is Devin.”

  Kat held up a fist. “What up, nigga?”

  Rick choked on something, and Mai had to pound his back.

  “The gentleman choking is Rick,” Judith said, “and down at the end is Doctor Sanchez. She’s the one to see for STDs.”

  Kat ignored the remark and took a bite of food.

  Judith continued. “For the time being, I’m organizing the work detail in the garden. We need everyone out there tomorrow.”

  Kat bobbled her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “How old are you, Kitten?” Judith asked.

  “It’s Kat.”

  “Oh, I don’t think you’re old enough to be a cat yet.”

  Carol cackled, displaying a mouthful of bad teeth. “She’s sixteen, going on twenty-one.”

  Judith reeled back. “This is your daughter?”

  “She ain’t my sister,” Carol snapped back.

  Nodding slowly, Judith turned back to Kat. “So if you don’t want to garden, do you know how to cook?”

  Kat gave her a smirk.

  “Any computer skills?”

  A roll of the eyes.

  “So basically, you’re unskilled labor.”

  “Oh,” Kat propped her chin on her hand, “I have some talents.”

  Rick choked again, more violently this time.

  “Well, Kitten,” Judith said. “After we get settled into our quarters, I’ll show you what a vacuum looks like, and how it works.”

  * * *

  Michael decided to pass the tour of the living quarters on to Mai. As she stood in front of Apartment One, she told the others, “The only thing that’s kind of a drag is that we share bathrooms, like in the old dorm suites.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Rick said. “Open up.”

  When Mai swung open the door, Taeya gasped. The far end of the apartment was one big expanse of glass. The view looked out on the greenhouse and the mountain range beyond the Biosphere.

  “This is so cool!” Rick said.

  “Yeah,” Taeya agreed, as she took a moment to sit on the comfortable sofa. On the opposite wall were shelves with a television and audio equipment. “Much nicer than what I had at the center.” She snorted. “And they insisted our quarters were top notch.”

  Rick grunted. “You should have seen where I lived.”

  Judith and Devin huddled at the bathroom doorway.

  “I told you the bathrooms were tiny,” Mai said.

  She was right. A small sink, no cabinets, the toilet, and a mini shower stall. Straight across was another door that led to apartment Two.

  “The toilets are a trip,” Mai said. “We don’t use toilet paper, we use water.” She tapped a control panel beside the tank. “Once you’ve done your business, you press a button and your ass gets a blast of warm water. Like a bidet. It even has a blow dryer.”

  Devin blurted out a laugh, and Taeya could see that Judith was a little skeptical. “Don’t worry,” Taeya told her. “You get used to it. We had these in New York.”

  “I’ll bet it didn’t have heated air,” Mai said.

  “It didn’t even have heated water,” Rick grumbled.

  After poi
nting out the spiral stairway that led to a loft bedroom up one level, Mai led them back out and across the hall.

  “This is where you’ll find Michael,” she said. “He calls it the command center.”

  Taeya stepped into a spacious room with a vaulted dome ceiling. Sure enough, there was Michael, sitting at a desk with several computers. He leaned past one of three monitors to wave at her, but made no move to get up. When she wandered closer, he shut down whatever he was working on and clasped his hands behind his head.

  “This is where I work, monitoring all our systems, evaluating air pressure, moisture content, oxygen levels.” He stretched his chest out. “It’s a constant juggling act.”

  “I can imagine.” Actually, Taeya couldn’t. The idea of an enclosure providing its own air and water supply, and the power to keep all of this equipment operational was mind-boggling.

  “We’ll hold off on sickbay,” Mai told Taeya over her shoulder as they meandered down the grand staircase to the lower level. “I doubt if the guys are interested. But I’ve got something I know they’re going to like.” She stopped next to the hatch where they’d come in. “Now this is where I’ll be able to find you two.” She pointed to Devin and Rick, then turned to her right and ushered them into a lounge.

  The large room would have looked like a hotel lobby if not for the red felt pool table right in the middle. Rick and Devin fondled pool cues, caressed the felt, clutched the shiny balls possessively. Taeya drifted around the room with Mai, imagining evenings seated on the plush sofas and chairs arranged for conversation. Maybe a cup of tea and music.

  In one corner, a tall cabinet held dozens of board games, playing cards, even jigsaw puzzles. The designers had thought of everything.

  “The idea for the Biosphere originated as a possible enclosure for the moon,” Mai said, “or was it Mars? This prototype was built here to see if it could work. But I think this room was mostly for show. Visitors would gawk through the windows, see all this stuff, and think the Biospherians lived a life of leisure.”

  “Maybe someday you will,” Taeya said.

  * * *

  Sickbay was state of the art. A portable X-ray machine. An EKG. A better lab than most clinics Taeya had seen. The curtain behind Mai concealed a motorized hospital bed, for an extended-stay patient.

  Mai pulled down the step to the examining table and sat. “So, what do you think of your new digs. Impressive, huh?”

  “There’s no way I’m horning in on your position here,” Taeya told her.

  “Bullshit.” Mai kicked her short legs out. “I’m a nurse, Taeya. I’ve never tried to convince anyone otherwise.”

  “But this is different from anything I’ve ever done.”

  “Thank God. I don’t know how you put up with the CDC as long as you did.”

  “What a mess.” Taeya pulled out the chair behind a small desk and sat. “Viral shedding was out of control long before we could convince the government to close schools and businesses.”

  “Tell me about it. We must have printed a million flyers,” Mai said. “Every night, the news was urging people to stay home, wash their hands, cover their mouths.”

  Taeya nodded. “You know, I blame some of this on the media. Every year they made dire predictions about a flu pandemic just to boost their viewership. People were so numb to the hype that they didn’t listen.”

  “Like ignoring the flight attendant when she’s telling you how to survive a plane crash.”

  “I don’t know how they handled it in Chicago, but New York was rationing supplies and anti-virals, holding off for round two.”

  Mai snorted. “Based on archaic data from a pandemic over a hundred years old.”

  “Exactly. And of course, they were geared for H5N1.” Taeya shook her head. “Those people were in complete denial about the severity of this virus.”

  “Oh, I know. I saw the city’s emergency plans. What a joke. They wanted tech specialists three deep, in case their first string was home hugging the bowl. And there were all kinds of telecommuting options. Social distancing, they called it. Didn’t anyone think we’d lose power?”

  Taeya jerked forward in her chair. “And those shortwave radios. What an antiquated piece of equipment. You can’t text, or even leave a message.”

  “I thought I was never going to hear from you again.” Mai lounged back on her elbows. “So tell me all about Rick. You both worked at the medical center?”

  “There’s nothing to tell,” Taeya said. “We barely know each other. Sorry.”

  “You should be. He is one hot hombre.”

  Taeya considered telling Mai to help herself, but decided she just might. Rick would actually be an improvement over Michael. “Why did the medical officer take off?”

  Mai allowed the detour in the conversation. “I suppose it was the hard work and the isolation. You’ll see. There’s nothing to do around here. I mean it doesn’t seem like it now, but after a couple months you start getting cabin fever.”

  “I can’t think of anything that would make me give up the security of a place like this.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Rick hefted two full buckets of crap from the goat pens and made the long haul across the garden and down the stairway to the basement. Once he got to the bottom, he banged down the buckets and hollered for John.

  When John poked his head around the corner and saw the load, he scurried over to help. “Holy cow, I’ve got a wheelbarrow for that.”

  Rick flexed his aching fingers. “Great.”

  “And there’s a lift right next to the laundry room. We use it to haul crops up to the kitchen.” A toothy grin parted his white beard. “Or to haul manure down to the basement.”

  “Swell.” Rick placed his hands on his lower back and stretched. “So how about you show me what else I should know.”

  John led him through a maze of ductwork and pipes, where he showed him water tanks, as big as silos, that stored all the run-off from the habitat: showers, faucets, washing machines.

  Farther into the bowels of the basement, John showed Rick a huge room devoted to repairs. There were work-stations with tools for specific jobs: a milling machine, different sized mitres, metal cutters. “Jesus, is there anything you don’t have in here?”

  He checked out all the screwdrivers on the wall lined up from longest to shortest. The hammerheads all faced the same way.

  “My father was a real stickler for neatness,” John said. “I learned the hard way to put things away.”

  “Yeah? Did he punch your lights out for losing a socket?”

  “Gracious, no. He was an academian.” John winked, like it was some kind of inside joke. “His punishments were much more subtle. I left a book out once, and he made me remove every book from his library. Then he mixed them all up and made me re-alphabetize them.” John raised a finger. “Mind you, the books were perfectly organized to begin with.”

  “What a prick.”

  “Yes, well I did learn my alphabet.” John chuckled. “Parents are an odd lot. No two people have the exact same theory on how children should be raised. Some abuse, some are over-protective, others simply ignore.”

  “Like Carol.”

  “Precisely.”

  “What’s her story? Michael doesn’t seem too happy with her.”

  “Yes, well,” John scratched his beard. “Michael was trying to replace Charlotte, who used to manage the farm. Carol told him she knew all about farming, so he invited her here. Turns out, she lived on a small dairy farm as a child, but had little experience with crops.”

  “I’m surprised he didn’t put her out. Especially with that little slut not lifting a finger.”

  “I believe that unfortunate child is the only reason Michael lets them stay.”

  The unfortunate child decided to push her luck and came late for dinner. If you could call it that. Rick tried eating slowly, but how long does it take to eat a little mound of coleslaw made of shredded broccoli stalks and carrots? There was no
meat, just a huge pile of sweet potatoes.

  “What is this?” Kat picked up her dinner plate from the kitchen counter.

  Judith turned slowly in her seat and lounged an arm over the back. “Those are half rations. Until you contribute to the work around here, that’s what you’ll get.”

  “This is bullshit.” Kat stormed into the dining room, heading straight for Michael. “We had a deal.”

  His face flushed as he hopped up from his seat. “Why don’t you take your plate to your room, Katherine. We’ll discuss this later.”

  But she walked over to the table and slammed her plate down next to Judith. “I don’t know who you think you are—”

  “All right. That’s enough.” Michael grabbed Kat’s arm and dragged her up the three steps to the main hallway, with her slapping and kicking at him the whole way. She started to yell something, but it sounded like Michael clamped a hand over her mouth. Rick could hear them scrabbling as they battled down the hallway.

  Everyone at the table sat in silence until they heard a door slam.

  “Wow!” Rick clapped his hands together and rubbed his palms. “That was fun. Can we do it again tomorrow?”

  Judith cleared her throat and looked over at Carol. “I’m sorry if I overstepped my bounds, but in the military, that’s how we get cooperation.”

  “Don’t matter to me,” Carol said. “Can I have her food?”

  Mai looked a little shell-shocked from the blow-up between Kat and Judith, so everyone stuck around to help her clean up. Well, not Carol. And as soon as the last dish was dried, Mai lit out, no doubt looking for Michael. John said he had some chores in the basement.

  An hour ago, Rick thought he’d fall asleep in his plate, but now he was pumped. It could have been the food, or Judith’s argument with Kat. Or maybe it was the sun still lingering over the tops of the Santa Catalina Mountains off to the west.

  For whatever reason, he just wasn’t ready to give up the day. He suggested an after dinner drink. Devin was all for it, and Judith looked like she could use a stiff belt.